TikTok staff to join office from Oct; attendance to be monitored

TikTok expects its working staff to return to the workplace, that is, the physical office. Starting October, the employees will be mandated to work from the office for a minimum of three days per week. For certain roles, presence in office will be mandatory for all the five working days.

With this return-to-office mandate, the video streaming platform also intends to oversee its employees’ adherence to the new regulations. Any violations can potentially affect their annual performance evaluations.

The company has revealed that it will be using an app to monitor employees’ attendance in the office. The app will be integrated into the company’s internal software and will track attendance through badge swipes, according to The New York Times. A dashboard is being designed containing the attendance data, which will be accessible to both the employees and their immediate supervisors, as well as the human resources department within the company.

The employees at the company’s New York office have allegedly been informed that using the app to check in will make them eligible for a lunch allowance provided by the company. Apart from that, in cases where an employee does not adhere to the prescribed in-office schedule, they will be obligated to provide an explanation for this deviation.

Recently, in July 2023, ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, allowed its U.S. employees to cash out their shares even before the company goes public. The change is aimed at addressing employee concerns and giving them the opportunity to profit from their awarded shares. Previously, shares were tied to a future event like an IPO, but ByteDance has removed this condition and now allows restricted shares to vest after a certain time, enabling employees to participate in stock buyback programmes and exchange their shares for cash.